Actually if we compress without loss *all* (there are 2^(n* different possible files of size n bytes) possible files the best possible average compression ratio is 0%, i.e. no compression. The best windows compressor in that case is the COPY command

However the files that the people use and compress (usually the one with meaningful content, unlike most files which are white noise) are a very small fraction of all possible files. Therefore a program can compress most actual files but it will increase the size of most possible files.

Your highest lossless compression kbps value?

I was about to point out something obvious, but wikipedia had it covered already...

Quote

Any lossless compression algorithm that makes some files shorter must necessarily make some files longer, but it is not necessary that those files become very much longer. Most practical compression algorithms provide an "escape" facility that can turn off the normal coding for files that would become longer by being encoded. Then the only increase in size is a few bits to tell the decoder that the normal coding has been turned off for the entire input. For example, DEFLATE compressed files never need to grow by more than 5 bytes per 65,535 bytes of input.

Your highest lossless compression kbps value?

Ha! Just a few week ago, I checked some of my songs out of couriosity which had the highest lossless bitrates, and whether it is possible to guess the bitrate by listening to it... Nice to see a thread for that.

The "Für Alina"-Album by Arvo Pärt had even slightler lower bitrates, but I do not have those files anymore.

- Most strongly compressed files (up to 400kbps) are not necessarily silent, but have very little noise and sounds with relatively few overtones, and are slow in general.- Uncompressible files (above 1000kbps) are typically highly compressed (sound weird, I know...) and fast, altought there are a few unexpected exceptions.

Your highest lossless compression kbps value?

Just checked my small lossless collection, the maximum there is 1067kbps, Monkey's Audio (insane): Die Toten Hosen - Testbild (live). Replaygain is just -8.48. I don't use Insane anymore because it's too slow for the gain. The same file encoded with High is just 8kbps larger.

Your highest lossless compression kbps value?

To the idea: strong musical compression (limiting) --> less lossless compression:Strong musical compression introduces lots of square waves which contain much energy in high spectral parts which is very similar to noise. That would explain the relation to compressibility.

Your highest lossless compression kbps value?

To the idea: strong musical compression (limiting) --> less lossless compression:Strong musical compression introduces lots of square waves which contain much energy in high spectral parts which is very similar to noise. That would explain the relation to compressibility.

Your highest lossless compression kbps value?

The low bitrates happen with files with many leading zeros on each sample (i.e. quiet!), but also with files with many trailing zeros on each sample (i.e. lossyWAV).

This way, you can make "normal" music get below 256kbps within FLAC, but it's no longer lossless - in fact it sounds quite horrible because though it says it's 44.1kHz 16bits stereo, there's only about 4 bits left! (This is a missuse of lossyWAV of course - default settings shoudl be transparent).

If anyone ever uses something like lossyWAV for a "sound effect" or a trick on a CD, you could have a normal (not quiet, not simple, not slow) yet very compressible track.

Your highest lossless compression kbps value?

It is far more likely that somebody could release a CD where the bit reduction is not the last step (it could be done before downsampling to 44100), or could pump the reduced data through an analogue link. This way the material would still sound horrible while being uncompressible.